Coronavirus: risk of ADE low with new Chinese vaccine candidate, researchers say
- Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is a side-effect of inoculation that can make a virus more harmful
- Team from Institute of Medical Biology say they cannot conclude their product will not cause ADE, but ‘likelihood as a result of inoculation with this vaccine is small’
ADE is a concern for vaccine developers because the mechanisms that underlie antibody protection against a virus can also amplify the infection or trigger harmful immune responses.
According to the team’s findings – which were published on Tuesday on the preprint website medRxiv.org and have not been peer-reviewed – in the first 28 days after vaccination, none of the subjects experienced a severe adverse reaction.
The most common effects were mild pain, slight fatigue and redness at the point of injection, they said.
“Although we cannot conclude that this vaccine will not cause ADE, these observations at least suggest that the likelihood of ADE as a result of inoculation with this vaccine is small,” the researchers said.
“All the data obtained in this trial support the safety and immunogenicity [the ability to provoke an immune response] of this inactivated vaccine and are encouraging with regards to further studies of its efficacy.”